Surgery Week One: Complete

Surgery week was such a success!

I must mention that within a little less than 4 days, 125 Mayans received prescription eye-glasses, and 26 patients received cataract surgery. These surgeries will forever change their lives.

Mayans travelled from all over the country to come to our clinic and receive the gift of sight. It is so humbling to be a part of something like this.

By the end of the week, I ended up conducting the eye exams as well as translating and helping with patient flow. Glory to God for people who are willing to train me. My friend Syed (seen below wearing my knit hat lol) helped teach me how to conduct exams so that he could focus on using the auto refractor machine. This enabled us to see more patients. If I do say so myself, we were quite a good team.

As most of you know, I hardly ever meet a stranger. So naturally, I got really attached to the team members that worked at our clinic last week. If you remember from an earlier post, I mentioned that a number of them were devout Muslims. I had such awesome conversations with these folks, got to know them, served them in the exam rooms, played basketball, football, shared meals, got to wash their dishes. Augh. My heart is so sappy at times it even drives ME nuts.

Either way, the experience was absolutely amazing. I still feel the loss of the team, but that will fade. I am so thankful for this experience. It is beyond explanation.

Here are some more photos from the week:

New Friend :)
 Our skin contrast looks way cool.

A family that came for eye exams. I am a stinking giant.

These are the two Spanish to Quiche translators that I worked with this week in the eye exam room. They were worth more than their weight in gold. They facilitated communication with the patients, and I am so, so appreciative!

These are two waaaay cool dudes.  On the left is the team coordinator for an organization called Humanity First. He's from Guatemala. The other gentlemen is Tahir, a guy I had so many conversations with about Islam, Christianity, life, culture. Amen. At the end of the day, I'm still a Christian, and he, a Muslim. This being said, seeds were planted, and it was a privilege to get to know him and hear some of his story!

Side note for Christians:

Something really stirred within me last week while I was working with this team.

This medical team quickly thought to pray for the patients we were seeing, served with financial generosity,  and provided both food and drink to the clinic volunteers. In regards to clinic work, they kept close inventory of everything they took so as to make sure to return what was taken.

Something struck me.

If we truly believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that Jesus really did die and now lives, why aren't we acting like it? The disconnect between our actions and stated beliefs seems as vast as the ocean is deep. As a people group in general, we are really missing the mark. 

As Christians, I commonly see us resorting to, not responding in prayer.

How often do we hold on to our money so tightly our knuckles become pale? Never mind that over 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 a day.

How could these team members set aside specific time to pray 5 times a day while we battle for even 10 minutes alone with our Lord?

Are we seeking for opportunities to give, or do we do whatever we can to avoid those who may burden us? We pass people all the time. We see them in the grocery store, at the coffee shop sitting alone, we pass them at church and decide not to talk to them. 


We have a million and one needs we could be meeting, and a million and two excuses for not meeting them.

It bothered me that, in a lot of ways, this group of non-Christians looked a whole lot more like Christ to me than some Christians I'm familiar with. Myself included.

Instead of having to bare the sight of Qurans being burnt in the name of "Christianity", perhaps we can just humbly learn to be more like Christ for the sake of those around us. In doing so, we can invade this dark world and advance His kingdom.

If you're a Christian, I encourage you to please take it seriously. Follow after the God of the Bible and stop serving yourselves; the world is watching.